Well, come with me to the passage
that we read earlier and particularly to verses 13 to 16 of Matthew
chapter 5. I've called this message Salt
and Light for very obvious reasons. It's interesting that I listened
to the Radio 4 church service on a Sunday morning and their
text this morning just happened to be exactly this text, Salt
and Light. I think they put a different
spin on it to the one that I'm about to put on it with God's
help. When you are blessed of God, because the Beatitudes are
all about those who are blessed by God. When God blesses, certain
things result from it. When God blesses those whom He
blesses with a new heart, with a new mind, with a transformed
mind, with a converted soul, converted to the Lord Jesus Christ
with faith to see the truth, He makes those people ones that
are poor of spirit. in terms of their spiritual resources. They know they've got none, apart
from that which He gives. And they become those that mourn
over their sin. They don't wallow in it, they
mourn over it. And they become meek rather than self-centered
and at the forefront. They become meek. and they hunger
and thirst for righteousness, those who are blessed by God
with salvation. How are they blessed by God with
salvation? It's salvation from sin, by the
atonement that Christ has accomplished. The atonement, break the word
down, at-one-ment, between sinners and a holy God. At-one-ment,
atonement. How did He make atonement? By
He Himself, the infinite God. walking as a man, made a man,
and as a man the fullness of the Godhead bodily dwelling in
him with all of his infinite capacity and therefore as that
which he wasn't before, a man, he now God clothed in human flesh
with infinite capacity is able to bear the sins of His people,
and to pay the penalty to the justice of God, that the justice
of God might be satisfied, that the people for whom He died and
shed His blood and rose again from the dead, showing that it
was accepted, that those people are saved from their sins. They
are made the righteousness of God in Him. They are made a new
creation. All things are passed away. All
things have become new. The one who is blessed of God,
when his or her eyes are opened to the truth of God, is a new
creation. They are born again. There is
a new person born again. As Jesus said to Nicodemus, you
must be born again. Except a man be born again of
the Spirit of God, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Never
mind have an opinion on it. He can't even see it. But when
God comes by His Spirit and creates a new man within, born of the
Spirit of God, He's born again. God says He would give His people
in Ezekiel, He said, I'll give you a new heart. A new heart. I'll take the old stony heart
out of you and give you a heart of flesh. a new character, a
new inclination. The old flesh stays exactly the
same. The old flesh is just as corrupt
and will be till the day it dies. The old flesh never improves,
but there is a new manager in the old works of that old factory.
There is a new boss in charge, and that's the new man of the
Spirit of God. And so there are new inclinations, there are new
desires, there are new and affections in the soul of this person. There's
what we read in the Beatitudes, there's a hunger and thirst for
the righteousness of God, even though still in that old body
of flesh. And the believer, the one who
has come to this state of being blessed by God, to know that
they're saved from their sins, is, as the Song of Solomon tells
us, a camp of two armies. In the one person it's like a
camp of two armies, the army of the old flesh that always
wants to do what flesh wants to do, and the army of the new
man of the Spirit of God that loves the righteousness of God.
And those so blessed of God, blessed in that way by God, with
salvation, with a taste of heavenly things, partakers as he says
of the divine nature, isn't that an amazing thing? Sinners! by practice are made partakers
of the divine nature by the grace of God. Those so blessed of God,
we still have to go on living in this world. we have to breathe
its air. We don't get our air from anywhere
else, it's the air that everybody else breathes. We have to drink
its water, we have to eat its food, we have to live in its
economy, we have to make a living, we have to raise our families
here, we have to interact with it, we interact with neighbours.
Just As the physical elements in the world react with one another
chemically, believers react with the world all around us. And
this is what Jesus is saying here in verse 13. He says, to
those who are blessed of God with salvation, And the sign
of it is that they exhibit these eight characteristics of poorness
of spirit, of mourning, of meekness, of hungering and thirsting for
righteousness, of a being of a merciful disposition, of being
pure in heart, of being peacemakers, of being those who bear persecution
falsely for the sake of the Lord Jesus Christ. Living in this
world, we react with it. We have to rejoice and be exceeding
glad when we react with it in the case of persecution. And
he says, you, you people that are so blessed with God, he says,
you are the salt of the earth. You are the salt of the earth. What does he mean by that? I
think it's a fairly familiar figure. It's a fairly familiar
idea to us. You see, worldly society all
around us is absolutely corrupt with sin. All around us it's
absolutely... Why is it corrupt? Why is the
world around us absolutely corrupt? The answer is simple. It's the
deceit of Satan. It's the deception of Satan is
why it's so corrupt. What's the deception of Satan?
Lies. He peddles lies concerning the
truth of God. He sows the seeds of lies in
the hearts of men and women about the truth of God. Just as he
did with Eve at the very beginning in the Garden of Eden. He said
to Eve, has God said? Has God? Surely God hasn't said
that. God has said you shall surely
die. No, no, no, no, no. Don't believe what God says.
He started there. He is the father of lies. and
he deceives the world. And the world lies in the deception
of Satan. Individually, each individual
lies in the deception of Satan. You want to know why people react
like they do to the truth of God. They're deceived by Satan.
And society collectively, we notice it more and more, there's
an overwhelming sort of communal trend towards accepting the lies
of Satan concerning the truth of God. Before Christ in Old
Testament times, in the times of the great empires of the Old
Testament world, the deception of Satan was more or less unconstrained
apart from in the little nation of Israel. Just there was the
truth of God, but everywhere else the deception of Satan was
virtually unconstrained in those days. And then, reading Revelation
20, with the eye of faith, we see that there's this thousand
years, which is not a literal thousand years, it's a symbolical
thousand years. And it's from when Christ accomplished
salvation, in his death and resurrection and his return to glory, It's
that time up until, I believe anyway, not very long ago, when
there was a thousand years when Satan was constrained. He was on a lead, on a chain
of God's choosing. God set the strength of it, God
set the length of it. And it wasn't that Satan did
no deception, but it was restrained. It was restrained according to
the purposes of God. But we also read in Revelation
chapter 20 of a little season at the end, before the end, a
little season when Satan is loosed from that restraint to deceive
the nations again. Is that not the days in which
we're living? It seems so much like it. I don't want to spend
my time sort of trying to, like a great big jigsaw puzzle, fit
all these pieces together. But it seems to me, just as Jesus
said, look for the signs and the times. You look at the trees
and you see, ah, spring's coming. I can see the signs of buds on
the hedge out there. I can see the spring flowers
are flowering. It's summer's coming. We can
tell what's... He said, look at the fig tree.
When you see the flowers, you know the summer's coming. He
said, if you can discern the seasons by what happens to the
plants and the flowers, then think about the seasons concerning
the kingdom of God. I think we're in that little
season because I've never, ever known such utter and complete
deception regarding the truth of God as there is in the world
today. It's the corruption of sin. It
is, as Paul writes to Timothy in 2 Timothy chapter 3, just
before he's killed for his faith, Paul, the last epistle that he
writes, he writes, this know also, chapter 3 verses 1 to 4,
this know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their
own selves. That's not poor in spirit, is
it? Covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents,
unthankful, unholy, without... without natural affection, trucebreakers,
false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that
are good, traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasure more than
lovers of God. We're certainly living in those
perilous times, surely. It's very difficult to disagree
with that. So why doesn't God take his saved
people out of the world now? Why doesn't he take us out of
the world now? Well again, he's told us why.
In John 17, in that great high priestly prayer of our Lord Jesus
Christ the night before he went to the cross, he told us why
he was leaving the world, but we were not going to leave the
world. In verse 11, he says, and now I am no more in the world. He was about to leave the world.
But these, these that believe in me, my followers, these are
in the world. And I come to thee, Holy Father,
keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me. Keep
your people in this world. Don't take them out of it, keep
them in this world, that they may be one as we are. And then
down in verse 15, I pray not that you should take them out
of the world. Jesus said then, I pray not that you should take
them out of this world, it must run its course according to the
purposes of God. But whilst they're there, he
prays that they should be kept, his people, his believing people
should be kept from the evil. He says they are not of the world,
they're not of the same mindset as the world, of the same loves
and likes and dislikes as the world, even as I, Jesus, am not
of the world. Sanctify them, make them holy
through thy truth. It's the word of truth that makes
his people holy. As you have sent me into the
world, so I have sent them into the world, into this world that
is so contrary to the things of God, that is so darkened from
the truth of God. And for their sakes I sanctify
myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth.
Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall
believe on me through their word." I think he includes us in that,
that down the generations and all who have believed on his
name, are to stay in this world, to be kept from evil as he prayed,
but nevertheless to stay here. Why? To bear testimony in this
world to gospel truth, to bear testimony in this world to gospel
truth until all of God's elect elect from before the foundation
of the world, are called out. How are God's elect called out?
Under the preaching of the gospel, for it is by the foolishness
of preaching that it pleased God to save those who believe. The two witnesses are in the
world, Revelation chapter 11. Who are the two witnesses? I
believe the two witnesses are, number one, the ordained preachers,
the preachers that God has equipped and given the message to proclaim,
and secondly, the churches, the people, the companies of believing
people who bear testimony to the truth. They are the witnesses
of God. Until all of God's elect are
called out to faith in Christ, are called to belief of the truth,
were to stay in this world and testify to gospel truth in this
dark world, to be a restraint, to be a brake on the corruption
of sin. Just as salt, you know, before
refrigeration, salt was the only way of stopping meat from putrefying. They would butcher their meat
and you know, it'd be too much to eat all at one go, so how
would you keep it so that it was still some good in a few
weeks' time? They would coat it in salt. Where would they
get the salt from? From the sea, they would evaporate
seawater. Get their salt, they would cover the meat in salt,
and the presence of the salt would stop the bacteria from
multiplying, and it would preserve the meat and make it usable,
and make it useful, and make it good to eat, weeks and weeks
after it otherwise would have been. This is what believers
are to be. This is what, not only art, they
are. Jesus says you are the salt of
the earth. That is what you are by nature
of what God has done to you. In his blessing of you with salvation,
of his enlightening you with his truth, you are the salt of
the earth. You are that which tends to reduce,
to restrain, to restrict the corruption that is in the world.
We're told by James, the Apostle James, he says, resist the devil. Don't just passively, fatalistically
sit back and do nothing. He says, resist the devil and
he will flee from you. Push back against his corrupting
influence. Exercise your new desires, the
new desires that are of the converted heart, new heart desires, the
hunger and thirst for the righteousness of God. That will drive this
salty effect of the believer in this world. It will restrain
the corruption that is in the world. It will restrain the corrupt
conversation that there is all around. I used to find, I don't
make any claim whatsoever to have been a glowing witness or
testimony. for our Lord. But nevertheless,
in the workplace, it used to not take very long for people
to discern that I had a different outlook to most other people.
I had a believing outlook. I had an outlook that was taught
by the Spirit and the Word of God. And therefore, When I used
to join a group of people around the coffee point or wherever
it was, the conversation would often rapidly change from what
it had been before I got there. Immoral activity is restrained
by the presence of a believer. Dishonest dealings are restrained
by the presence of a believer. Because why? You are the salt
of the earth. Proverbs 1 verse 15 says this,
My son, go not in the way with them, withhold thy foot from
their path. Stay away from the sin and the
corruption of this world, is what it's doing. In so doing,
you will sprinkle salt on its corrupting influence. But remember,
It's not so much about what you do, it's about what you are by
nature as a believer. You are the salt of the earth. You are salt by virtue of God's
blessing you with salvation and with his truth. But he says,
look, if the salt have lost his savour, Wherewith shall it be
salted? It is thenceforth good for nothing,
but to be cast out and to be trodden under foot of men. Beware
of claiming or presuming to be salt in this world as a believer,
but really having no saltiness. All talk with no commensurate
action. What keeps a believer salty in
this world? What keeps us salty? You are
the salt of the earth, what keeps us salty? We're exhorted by Peter
at the end of his second epistle to grow in grace and the knowledge
of our God and Saviour Jesus Christ. Grow, grow in his truth. in his righteousness. Grow in
it. Grow in it. Study it. Feed on it. Feed on
God's... You know the Word of God? We're
looking on Wednesday night in Hebrews chapter 4. The Word of
God is sharp, like a sharp two-edged sword. It pierces right down
to the core of the being. Let's feed on that sharp two-edged
sword of the Word of God. It keeps us salty. It keeps the
believer salty. Let's let it dwell within us
richly. Feed on it. Let it dwell within
you richly in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. Study it. Listen to preaching. Take the
time to listen to good, wholesome preaching. There's so much of
it available and so easily accessible to us today. good material to
read, feed on it, so long as it's good material that is in
accordance with the truth of the Word of God. This is how
we keep ourselves salty. It isn't just being negative.
It isn't just being censorious and cold-hearted. It isn't being
like that. In actual fact, we're told to
aim to live at peace with all men. Romans 12, 18, if it be
possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all
men. Don't go out of the way on your
soapbox and berate people and say harsh words to them all of
the time. No, live at peace. Not just being negative, but
be salty in terms of the truth of God within. If God has saved
you, and renewed you, and recreated you in the mould of His Son,
you will be a salt to society's corruption in sin. You are the
salt of the earth. Then secondly, verse 14, he says,
you are the light of the world. You are the light of the world. The light of the world. God's
word often contrasts darkness of spiritual ignorance and sin
with the light of divine truth and revelation. God's divine
truth and revelation from Him is as light in a dark world.
God's Word often contrasts dark and light as a picture, as a
figure of the difference between spiritual truth, which is light,
and spiritual ignorance, which is darkness. In fact, we read,
in the beginning, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the
earth and in the beginning God said let there be light and there
was light and God saw that it was good and God divided the
light from the darkness. He makes a division between light
and darkness, and He makes a division between spiritual light and spiritual
darkness. And we read in Isaiah 9, verse
2, about the people that walked in darkness. Is this not all
of His elect by nature, by their birth, by their nature in the
flesh? Are people walking in darkness,
but They have seen a great light. The people that walked in darkness
have seen a great light. What is the light that they've
seen? It's the light of salvation from sin. The light of eternal
life is what they have seen, of eternal purpose, of knowing
that what we are in the purpose of God, of the truth and righteousness
of God. of that in contrast to the darkness
of Satan's lies, of Satan's unbelief. The latter, Satan's unbelief,
has infiltrated every corner of society, hasn't it? The media,
education, science even, philosophy. You know, the scriptures 2,000
years ago called science, science falsely so-called. So much of
it today is science falsely so-called, because it's in complete contrast
to the truth of God. The world's philosophy is in
contrast to the truth of God. Its psychology is in contrast
to the truth of God. You know, when you get older,
you start to get more and more medical conditions, and our health
service, which I think is a very good thing, but they get very,
very concerned. There's a great concern about
mental health in these days, like there rarely has ever been
in the past. You can often, if you've got
a few things, oh, we'll give you some counselling for your
conditions that you've got. You can go and you can see a
counsellor who will make you feel so much better about how
to handle all of these things. Well, I'm telling you, if you
go along with it, do you know what you get? You get the wisdom
of this world. you get the wisdom of the darkness
of this world. Believers have the light of the
knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ because
He said, Jesus said, John 8 verse 12, Jesus said, I am the light
of the world. He that followeth me shall not
walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. How shall
we have the light of life? God, who spoke in the beginning
to make light shine out of darkness, when he said, let there be light,
has, as Paul says to the Corinthians, has shined in our hearts to give
us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God. Where do
we see it? In the face of Jesus Christ. That's it. That's where
we see it. In all that Christ is, we have
the light of the knowledge of the, don't think you could ever
know anything truly about God apart from Jesus Christ. It's
in Him and Him alone that we have the truth of God, that we
have heavenly truth regarding sin and redemption, regarding
the price that was paid for our sins to make us the righteousness
of God in Him. It's the light of God's glory
perceived, apprehended, grasped hold of. What a comfort it is,
isn't it? What a comfort it is to have
the truth of the glory of God in saving grace. to have it as
our possession, His grace and His truth. He is the outshining
of the person of God. Hebrews 1 verse 3, Christ is
the brightness, see light, the brightness of God's glory. He
is the express image or the outshining of the person of God to us. He
is the light of the world. His light was displayed in His
miracles, yes. But more so, I would suggest,
more so in His words. He who is the Word of God. In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He is the Word
of God. That is the name that is upon
His thigh in Revelation 18. The Word of God. This is His
name. Out of His mouth comes a sharp
two-edged sword. The Word of God. And as those
that were sent to arrest Him in His earthly ministry, they
failed to arrest Him. And they came back to the rulers
and they said, why haven't you taken him as we told you to?
And they said, never man spake like this man. Never before have
we heard a man speak like this man. He is the messenger of the
covenant. Come down from heaven to shine
heavenly light in our sin-darkened world. And the darkness doesn't
understand it, as John chapter 1 tells us in the first few verses. In him, in Christ, was life,
and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in
the darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not. The darkness
all around didn't understand it. There's Jesus Christ shining
with all the light of God and the darkened minds of the scribes
and Pharisees did not understand it. Why? Because it's spiritually
discerned. The natural man doesn't receive
it because it's spiritually discerned. Don't be surprised that the world
misunderstands your perspective. You know, the one loss of a sense
I think that I would dread more than any other is the loss of
my sight, and I know that there are many, many people who have
a loss of sight. But most blind people, and I
know there are degrees of blindness, but most blind people will acknowledge
that there is a world of light, but they just can't see it. But
imagine a blind man who refuses to acknowledge the very fact
of light. That is the darkness, spiritually,
that we see all around us. The spiritual darkness that we
see in men and women around us is a darkness which even refuses
to acknowledge that there is such a thing as spiritual light
which they do not possess. But how is a Christian the light
of the world then? Jesus said, I am the light of
the world, and he says here, you are the light of the world.
Heavenly light is created within by faith. And the believer's
light, you are the light of the world, is that which is reflected
by the light that is from heaven. It's light from heaven that is
reflected. You are the light of the world,
not because you are the source of the light, but because of
the light that comes by God from heaven in Christ. As the moon
reflects sunlight, so believers shine with reflected Christ light. The Holy Spirit is pictured in
the Scriptures more than once as olive trees whose oil feeds
the lamps that keep the lamps alight. The lamps. Psalm 119
verse 130 says, The entrance of thy words giveth light. It's
God's Word coming in, the truth of God. Heavenly light that gives
light within. It giveth understanding to the
simple. Oh, you don't have to be, you
know, a Mensa champion, an IQ champion. It gives understanding
to the simple. As the psalmist says in Psalm
27, the Lord is my light and my life. Of whom shall I be afraid? The Lord is my light. By grace,
God's light is within and it will shine. Jesus said, You are
the light of the world. You are the light of the world.
It's what you are by nature of what God has made you. By God's
grace, light is within from God and it will shine, it will leak
out. Jesus said, if we read further
on, verse 16, let your light so shine before men. Let it shine. Jesus said don't try to stop
it from shining. If you are this new creature
that God has created, with light from heaven within, it will shine
unless you try to stop it. Let it shine. If it's there within,
it will naturally shine out. Don't force it, but let it shine. Where? Where should we let it
shine? Answer? Wherever God in providence
puts us. Amongst neighbours, amongst family
members, among school colleagues, work colleagues, in society in
general, and around about, let it shine. And where should we
do that? Look in verse 15. Neither do
men light a candle and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick,
and it giveth light into all that are in the house. I'll just
quickly explain. If you've got a marginal Bible,
you'll know that the word bushel used there is not the right word
in the original. What a bushel is, is a measure
that they used to measure grain in, it's a great big basket or
bowl or tub or something of that nature. You know when Jesus turned
water into wine, the pots were of a certain size, these old
imperial measures of pecks and bushels and firkins
and things of this nature, all these sorts of things. Well,
in actual fact the word in the original, I'll cut it short,
comes down to a pot of about 15 pints capacity. What's that? One that's about... So big. Imagine
15 pints capacity. He's saying you don't light a
candle and then stick a bushel. Well, it's not really a bushel.
It's this 15 pint container over the top of it. The translators
just used bushel. Something that will mask the
light. Don't do that. Where do you place your heavenly
light? Not under this thing that will block its light, so it's
hidden from view. By saying this, what was he meaning? By being too shy, for example. By being ashamed of Christ and
His Gospel in company, or amongst others. By giving an inconsistent
witness, or a witness that's incompatible with what you say
you believe. That masks the light. By masking
the truth of God. By masking the truth that Scripture
clearly declares. It's not letting your light shine.
There are those that claim they're so strong for evangelism, yet
they won't mention a word of the truth of God about the truth
of election. And yet election is so clear
in the scripture. How can you witness the truth
of God if you're not true to what God has said? You're hiding
the light under a bushel. You're hiding it from truth.
or being in a place that's contrary to God's providential guidance.
That's another way of hiding the light under a bushel. So
Jonah was told to go to that great city Nineveh and preach
to it. And what did Jonah do? Turned
around and went the other way. He went to the wrong place. He
was not letting his light shine because he went to the wrong
place. And he didn't like it, but when he went to the right
place, his light shined. And the Ninevans, if that's what
they are, they were converted to the truth of God. Abraham
couldn't have his light shine so long as he stayed in Ur of
the Chaldees. He had to leave it and go where
God led him, for his light and that of subsequent generations
to shine. You see, when you had no light
from God, It didn't particularly matter where you lived, but now
all is different, and it causes you trouble in this life, because
you must always consider, I need to be where my light can shine
for God. Aim to be where God guides you
to be, a light shining for his truth. Aim to be there. Aim to be there. How? Here's
one way. Here's one way. How can we shine
with the truth of God? Well, wherever we are, if it's
possible to do it, and you believe the gospel, God's word says this,
confess the truth in baptism. People will ask, why do you do
that? What's that? You can tell them what it signifies.
Confess in baptism. If there's a group of people
that are meeting under the sound of the true gospel of grace,
Meet with them. Go there. If it's reasonable
to get there, go there. Associate with them and don't
try to hide it. This is letting your light shine.
They might ask the others around you, why do you go there? And
you can shine by telling them simply why you go there. we are
going to have communion. We'll break bread and we drink
wine together. And I know that this room itself
is not a public gathering apart from the broadcast out on the
internet. And who knows who's watching? I don't know. I don't know. We
don't have a list of names. Don't worry if you want to remain
anonymous out there. There's no way I can tell who you are
that's looking at us this morning. But it shows the Lord's death
till he come. it shines his light. By doing
this and coming together we show the Lord's death till he comes. Sometimes God providentially
forces us into the open to shine out in the open as he did in
the first century church that was becoming rather cosy and
comfortable in Jerusalem and he sent persecution and it scattered
them and they went all over the then known world, all over the
western world, all around the Mediterranean. They went scattered
by persecution for the light to shine. And in verse 16 he
says, let your light so shine before men. Let it shine so that
they see it, don't try to smother it. But what is it shining? What is it? Selflessness, the
characteristics of the believer. the beatitudes, let it shine,
let it shine. The acts of kindness, of a generous
spirit, of service to others, of humility and meekness, clearly
esteeming others better than yourself. Isn't that a light
in a dark world? This dark world tells you that
the thing you need more than anything else is for you to have
all the glory and all the preeminence. And yet the truth of God says,
no, esteem others better than yourself. This is Christian shining. Are you a believer? Are you born
again of God's Spirit? Are you trusting Christ alone
for salvation from sin? Are you destined for eternal
glory? You say, yes, yes, I believe,
I really do believe that that all applies to me. By faith I
know that that's my situation. Then, says Jesus, you will have
a salty restraint on sin all around, and gospel-like must
of necessity shine from you. Don't smother it, let it shine. Let it shine. You know what happens
on a dark summer's night, when it's gone dark and you've got
the light on outside? You know what happens? The moths.
The moths love the light, don't they? The moths come and flutter
around the light. Who knows the moths, by which
I mean the unbelievers in the world around us, that could be
drawn to that light if we obey what our Master calls us to do
and let our light so shine before men. Amen.